Ghislaine Maxwell, the jet-setting socialite turned convicted intercourse trafficker, is off to Florida to serve a 20-year federal jail sentence for serving to financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse underage ladies — returning to the identical state, however a far cry from the luxurious way of life, the place she dedicated a few of her crimes.
Maxwell, 60, was moved final week to FCI Tallahassee, a low-security federal jail in Florida's capital, from the Brooklyn federal jail the place she'd spent the final two years beneath shut watch in gentle of Epstein's 2019 jail suicide.
It wasn't clear whether or not Maxwell could be held in restrictive housing or beneath different particular precautions, given her notoriety and long-standing considerations about her well-being behind bars.
Maxwell, who was convicted final December in Manhattan and sentenced in June, repeatedly complained about her remedy on the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Brooklyn, her dwelling since her July 2020 arrest.
Maxwell and her legal professionals complained that jail officers had been flashing a lightweight into her cell each quarter-hour, interrupting her sleep, and subjecting her to tons of of searches and pat downs.
She additionally claimed that a guard on the Brooklyn facility bodily abused her and that she was punished for complaining about it.
Maxwell, who as soon as consorted with royals, presidents and billionaires because the daughter of a British publishing magnate, was convicted of luring teenage ladies for Epstein to abuse.
Her month-long trial featured sordid accounts of the sexual exploitation of ladies as younger as 14, instructed by 4 girls who described being abused as teenagers within the Nineteen Nineties and early 2000s at Epstein's palatial houses in Florida, New York and New Mexico.
Maxwell's new dwelling, FCI Tallahassee, is about 580 kilometres from Epstein's since-demolished mansion in glitzy Palm Seashore the place prosecutors say a number of the abuse occurred.
The jail, opened in 1938, has about 820 female and male inmates.
In accordance with an inmate handbook, individuals locked up on the facility have entry to a variety of courses and actions, together with portray, leather-based, artwork and ceramics, musical devices, workforce sports activities equivalent to softball, basketball and volleyball.
The jail additionally provides yoga, Pilates, films and an inmate expertise present, based on jail consulting agency Zoukis Consulting Group.
Maxwell is becoming a member of a brief record of notable individuals who've served time at FCI Tallahassee, together with Maria Butina, the Russian undercover agent who tried to infiltrate conservative US political teams, and Colleen LaRose, often known as "Jihad Jane" for offering materials help to terrorists.
Butina was launched in 2019 and deported to Russia. LaRose was launched in 2018.
Like many federal prisons, FCI Tallahassee has had its share of staff committing crimes lately — together with sexual abuse of inmates.
In March, former FCI Tallahassee recreation specialist Jimmy Lee Highsmith was sentenced to 4 years in jail for sexually abusing an inmate between March 2014 and September 2018.
In August 2021, former FCI Tallahassee meals service foreman Phillip Golightly was sentenced to 2 years in jail for sexually abusing an inmate in November 2019.
In 2006, a correctional officer and a federal agent had been killed in a gun battle on the jail's grounds.
The officer opened hearth as brokers tried to arrest him and a number of other different officers on fees they gave contraband to feminine inmates in trade for intercourse, officers stated.
A timeline of the Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell intercourse abuse case